Alternative Names Stair Estate; Castle Kennedy Policies; Lochinch Castle Policies
Site type COUNTRY HOUSE
Canmore ID 61743
Site Number NX16SW 6.00
NGR NX 11048 60936
Council DUMFRIES AND GALLOWAY
Parish INCH
Former Region DUMFRIES AND GALLOWAY
Former District WIGTOWN
Former County WIGTOWNSHIRE

Canmore Mapping
View this site on a map

Archaeological Notes

NX16SW 6.00 11048 60936

NX16SW 6.01 11030 60871 Walled Garden
NX16SW 6.02 11242 60786 Castle Kennedy Bridge
NX16SW 6.03 11276 60769 Gate Piers, Gates and Boundary Walls
NX16SW 6.04 11255 60815 The Canal
NX16SW 6.05 10847 59834 Lodge
NX16SW 6.06 11501 60825 Black Stables
NX16SW 6.07 11290 60927 Canal Cottage
NX16SW 6.08 11789 60767 East Lodge
NX16SW 6.09 11330 60740 Garden Cottage
NX16SW 6.10 11238 60902 Kitchen Garden centred on
NX16SW 6.11 10567 61507 White Loch Boathouse
NX16SW 6.12 11268 61017 Bowling Pavilion
NX16SW 38 10133 60336 Castle Kennedy, Church Lodge

See also NX16SW 27.00 - 27.11 for neighbouring Lochinch Castle Estate.

(NX 1105 6093) Castle Kennedy (NR) (Remains of)
OS 6" map (1957)

A good example of a symmetrically-planned 17th century mansion of rough rubble to which wings have been added on the north and west. It was built in 1607 and must have supplanted an older keep, mentioned in 1482. The site of the castle was originally an island in Loch Inch, but is now a neck of land.
Castle Kennedy was accidentally destroyed by fire in 1716 and was not restored.
RCAHMS 1912

As described, planned and illustrated by the Commission.
Visited by OS (WDJ) 27 February 1968

This early 17th-century mansion stands in landscaped gardens on a ridge between the White and Black Lochs. The existing building evidently represents only a fragment of what had been conceived as a much more extensive house.
It is symmetrical on plan, consisting of an oblong, four-storeyed main block flanked by projecting towers on the E with smaller turrets in the two W re-entrants; the original intention was to extend the main block considerably further westwards. The service rooms on the ground floor were vaulted, and a passage (opening from an entrance-doorway at the S side of the E wall) extended the length of the block and communicated with a newel-stair in the SW re-entrant turret. The public rooms were presumably situated within the main block, which had a single large chamber at each level. The wings contained a series of bedchambers and associated closets. In the early 18th century two-storeyed wings were added on the S and W. There is no evidence of an associated enclosure, the walled garden on the S side of the mansion being of 18th-century date.
Building work at Castle Kennedy is on record in 1607. In the mid 17th century the property was acquired by the Hamiltons, Lairds of Bargany, passing in 1677 to the Dalrymples of Stair. After a fire in 1716 the family took up residence at Culhorn (NX 0790 5910), but in the 1720s work commenced on the policies under the direction of William Adam and in consultation with the elder William Boutcher.
(SRO GD 135/Box 33/1, 13; Box 35/4; 139, no.3; 141/Vol.8/57; SRO RHP 4677)
RCAHMS 1987, visited April 1986.

Architectural Notes

NX16SW 6.00 11048 60936

See NMRS Archaeology Notes for full list of related sites.

EXTERNAL REFERENCE

Payment of £577.18.4 (Scots) to John Anderson, mason, 'for the new work at Castle Kennedy, conform to his discharge on the back of my Lord's contract'.
Factor's Accounts.
1706 GD 135/Box 33/1


Inventories of furnishing.
List furnishing room and room and give some indication of the lay out of the Castle.
1698 and 1702 GD 135/Box 33/13

Wright work.
Account of work done by James Paterson, wright. It includes work on the old Kitchen, the repair of windows, chimneys and roof and the making of a garret stair.
1710 GD 135/Box 35/4

Stair. John Earl of 1673-1747. Debts settlement of affairs
List includes:
Allan Ramsay, painter #28.10.0
Richard Couper, engraver #9.6.5
William Adam, architect #264.2.9
James Norie, painter #74.9.7
William Glass, gardener #160.0.0
1745-1751 GD 135/ Box 37/1/9-11X

Stair Estates: Farm Houses
Plans, specifications, estimates and accounts
1820-1833 GD 135/Box 64/7

Plan of kitchen premises
ND GD 135/Box 43/7/9

Plan. Unidentified room
18th c. GD 135/Box 53/16

Kirkmaiden and Glenluce. Measurement of the Earl of Stair's Estates and drawing of Plans.
Receipted account for #92.12.7 1/2 from John Gillone, Surveyor.
1794 GD 135/Box 51/9/4

Measurement of Craigoch Lands. (Kirkcolm)
Letter from John Gillone, Surveyor. He acknowledges payment of #27.12.3.
1793. GD 135/Box 51/9/1

Ardd. Parks
Plan of part.
ND GD 135/Box 50/4/13

Lochinch. The Park
Plans (2)
ND GD 135/Box 47/11/10

Survey Plans.
Letter to George Guthrie (factor at Culhorn) from John Emslie, Surveyor.
The plans of Glenluce and New Luce are complete. The houses in Holm Street are to be marked on the plan of Portpatrick and a sketch has been made fo Drumore.
1841 GD 135/Box 62/31/5

Surveying and planning of the Estate of Stair.
Receipt for 10 guineas from James Jamerson.
1749 GD 135/Box 36/15

Surveying and drawing a plan of the Estate in Inch Parish and measuring new subdivisions of the Parks.
Copies made of the Original Plans of the estates in the Parishes of Leswalt, Kirkmaiden, Old Luce and Inch.
Receipted accounts from John Gilmore for #176.13.1 1/2 and #30.17.4 1/2
1796 and 1979 GD 135/Box 50/6/2/2 and 3

John Dalrymple, Stranraer, to Ld Stair, 14 December, 1722.
Thos McCaul, Stair's gardener, is just away at Portpatrick. 'I wrote to Coll : Cathcart to speak to Boucher for the plan which I expect against ye Gardner return.
Stair MSS GD 135/139. No 3.

Account of a fire.
'.....the maid had put on a fire in the drawing room for airing the room and went to bed after she had put out the fire, however in the night it broke out and burnt all so as they [the servants] had much difficulty to make their own escape and could save nothing but my son's own picture and two more. I know he will be concerned because Castle Kennedy was the favourite house.......'.
Letter from Elizabeth Stair.
November 3 1716 GD 135/141/Volume 8/57

New addition to the Gardens.
Receipt for clearing the ground for the new addition and throwing up earth for the sunk fence.
1746-1747 GD 135/Box 42/3/14


Gardens.
Receipts from Thomas McCall for payments to journeymen, gardeners and labourers. 1747-1750
Receipted account from John McCredie for gardeners' wages 1760-1762.
Order for seeds etc [?for Culhorn]. 1780-1781.
1747-1781 GD 135/Box 52/21/1-6

The Gardens.
'There was a part of Castle Kennedy called The Wilderness in which there were various grass walks, regularly mown, some clumps of laurels, ornamental wood and hedges. About 30 years ago the late Earl of Stair thought all this too formal, ordered most of the laurels and ornamental wood to be cut, disposed of, that part thrown open and the intersecting hedges destroyed'.
1832 GD 135/139/2/76 (Volume)
Description of a visit.
Letter from Ann Dalrymple to Lady Dalrymple.
She describes Castle Kennedy as 'one of the charmingest places ever I saw'.
1744 GD 110/1082/2

RHP 4677 A Fowler 1843 layout of gardens

Adam, W (1812) Vitruvius Scoticus: being a collection of plans, elevations, and sections of public buildings, noblemen's and gentlemen's houses in Scotland: principally from the designs of the late William Adam Esq., architect, Edinburgh
Page(s): plates 120, 121

Agnew, A (1893) The Hereditary Sheriffs of Galloway, Edinburgh
Page(s): Vol.2, 237

Grose, F (1789-91) The antiquities of Scotland, 2v London
Page(s): Vol.2, 191 Held at RCAHMS D.20.GRO.R